Fluoroelastomers, and more particularly perfluoroelastomers, are currently used in a variety of applications in which severe environments are encountered, including high temperatures and aggressive chemicals.
Thanks to these top-end performances, these materials are routinely used notably in semi-conductors manufacturing devices as sealants or joints; these fluoroelastomer parts are thus routinely submitted to reactive plasma, corrosive cleaning fluids and high temperature. Under these extremely severe conditions, these materials might fail, leading to defects and loss of quality and productivity.
Solutions have thus been proposed for overcoming these limitations, including notably the adjunction to the fluoroelastomer composition of one or more inorganic additive.
Thus, WO 97/19983 (DU PONT) May 6, 1997 discloses perfluoroelastomer compositions which can be effectively used for manufacturing items able to sustain processing conditions encountered in dry process semiconductor manufacturing equipment; more particularly, this document discloses perfluoroelastomer compositions curable with peroxide or organo-tin metallic curative which are filled with a mixture of a metallic reinforcing filler chosen among SiO2, BaSO4, Al2O3 and aluminum silicate with a well-defined amount of TiO2.
Nevertheless, the developments of electronic components manufacturing processes and of plasma etching techniques constantly raise the requirements for all manufacturing devices components, including those made from fluoroelastomers.
A remaining unmet need thus exists for fluoroelastomeric compositions processable to yield final parts able to satisfactorily withstand to the unusual process conditions found in advanced dry semiconductor manufacturing environment.
On the other side, Calcium, Magnesium and Barium-carbonate based fillers have been often proposed in the past as acid acceptors and/or basic compounds in ionically curable fluoroelastomer compositions (see for instance: EP 1591479 A (SOLVAY SOLEXIS SPA [IT]) 2 Nov. 2005) and in perfluoroelastomer compositions curable via peroxidic route (see e.g. EP 1262518 A (AUSIMONT SPA [IT]) 4 Dec. 2002).
Nevertheless, the compounds therein taught fail to provide acceptable plasma resistance for making them suitable for prolonged use in semiconductors manufacturing devices.